PASSIONS

With the psychedelic and prog era ceding into the more commercial and accessible sounds of punk rock, new wave, disco and various forms of chart topping pop music, almost all of the bands that electrified the experimental underground of the earliest part of the 70s had either long disbanded or modified their style to suit a more contemporary audience or face complete obscurity in the case of many others. As for CATHERINE RIBEIRO + ALPES, on the band's seventh album PASSIONS, the team started to merge RIBEIRO's solo career as a traditional French chanson performer with the experimental psychedelic rock and avant-folk of its earlier years that managed to continue right up to 1977's "Le Temp De L'autre." But the times were a-changin' as they say and even this eclectic group succumbed to the pressures of infusing its heady politically charged music with more pop friendly hooks.

A remarkable shift in direction was coupled by yet another substantial lineup change. RIBEIRO was still at the helm delivering her brash vocal bravado with her partner in crime guitarist, composer and self-made instrument inventor Patrice Moullet by her side. Also early organist Patrice Lemoine who rejoined in 1976 was back however a new cast of characters joined the ALPES which included violinist David Rose, bassist / clarinet player Francis Campello and Mirelle Bauer on percussion, vibes, marimba. Also joining in was saxophone player Robin Kenyatta who added some jazzier than usual touches to the ALPES sound. The album featured nine tracks almost all of which were on the shorter side of around four minutes or less with the notable exception of the two tracks "Tous Les Droits Sont Dans La Nature" at over 7 minutes and "L'Oiseau Devant La Porte" which extended past 11.

While the progressive rock and psychedelic features had been seriously tamped down, the band retained enough of their familiarity to keep this album sounding like a natural albeit simplified and more commercial continuation of its classic sound. The biggest surprise will come first with the opening track "Loana Mélodie" sounding more like a RIBEIRO solo effort than anything ALPES would dare venture into however the following "Frères Humains" restores a sense of familiarity with the classic repetitive groove format with RIBEIRO's strong vocal accompaniment with that haze of psychedelic organ electrifying the backdrop. It becomes obvious though that this is a very different album with the third track "Critalpin" which takes on a catchy synth-pop sort of organ run although it is in the context of a more complex compositional approach that turns out to be a classical crossover track with folky clarinet performance and violin jig.

The most traditional of the tracks which was obviously thrown in to appease the longtime fans of the olden days, is the 11-minute "L'Oiseau Devant La Porte" which follows the now classic playbook of a dark mopey procession through the familiarity of those 20-minute plus tracks that ended the albums of the golden years however the bouncy rhythms and the fidgety violin accompaniments that follow follow the updated sound the band is striving to maintain. The track does however feature RIBEIRO's familiar style of bringing her poetic prose into a musical format. Despite the more commercial leanings on the album, the lyrics continue completely in the French language. While the song features that new wave "bounce" it sounds more like the darkened psychedelic efforts of the past although the violin offers a lugubrious weeping touch. The album ends with the orchestrated ballad "Femme Témoin" and the jazzy chanson crossover track "Détournement De Chants" which sounds like RIBEIRO switched out the ALPES for Supertramp!

Certainly a major departure from the experimental progressive uncompromising nature of the band's past but despite the more accessible elements and the merging of RIBEIRO's solo career with the ALPES, PASSIONS is actually a beautifully delivered slice of progressive pop, chanson and psychedelia with remnants of the past. Virtually forgotten in time mostly due to the fact PASSIONS and the band's final release "Le Déboussille" have been out of print since their first pressing, the album has found new life on the complete album box set "Intégrale des albums originaux 1969-1980 - 9 CD" released in 2015. While certainly not the most essential release of the ALPES canon, it nevertheless is a lot better than one would expect given the more commercial leanings proving the band was extremely versatile in how it could navigate a large swath of stylistic approaches, a trait which it had displayed from album to album since the very beginning. While definitely a step down from what came before, the album is still very worthy of checking out and i can't recommend the box set enough.

3.5 rounded down